But there were no pictures in places where pictures
had evidently once hung, and the only coverings on the stone floor were
the faded remnants of a central rug and a worn tiger skin, the head
almost bald and a glass eye knocked out.
Bettina took in the unpromising details without a quiver of the
extravagant lashes. These, indeed, and the eyes pertaining to them,
seemed rather to sweep the fine roof, and a certain minstrel's gallery
and staircase, than which nothing could have been much finer, with the
look of an appreciative admirer of architectural features and old oak.
She had not journeyed to Stornham Court with the intention of disturbing
Rosy, or of being herself obviously disturbed. She had come to
observe situations and rearrange them with that intelligence of which
unconsidered emotion or exclamation form no part.
"It is the first old English house I have seen," she said, with a sigh
of pleasure. "I am so glad, Rosy--I am so glad that it is yours."
She put a hand on each of Rosy's thin shoulders--she felt sharply
defined bones as she did so--and bent to kiss her. It was the natural
affectionate expression of her feeling, but tears started to Rosy's
eyes, and the boy Ughtred, who had sat down in a window seat, turned red
again, and shifted in his place.
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